Strawberry and Chocolate
by SakK
Summary: Having a gun pointed at you may not be a good thing especially if the person pointing it is supposed to be your fiance!
1. Chapter 1

"You have GOT to be the craziest father on Earth. I am NOT going to marry some guy whom I have never even met!" the girl screamed, throwing furious glares at the long haired man sitting opposite her on the tatami mat.

"Please, Akane, you've got to understand, it's for the clan-"

"Clan schman," the girl interrupted. "You didn't even consider my feelings, Dad!"

The man, Soun Tendo, knew he was in the wrong but he also had to honour the promise he made to his wife about bringing pride and fame to Tendo Associations, a group his wife and he had started. And to fulfill his promise, he'd taken the first step, and that was to make Kasumi fall in love with the affluent Ono Tofuu, which ended in an extravagant wedding and a honeymoon lasting a whole year. Even after their family had gotten a bigger base and a newer and larger mansion, courtesy of Tofuu, Soun, along with his youngest daughter, had refused to move out of their small but cozy home. Nabiki gave up on convincing them to move out and had instead shifted to the larger Tendo Mansions, situated behind the new base of Tendo Associations.

He had to take the next step now. He cleared his throat. "Akane, you will marry the boy in a few weeks time."

"Dad-"

"You will marry him and that's that," he said in a firm voice. Akane stared at him, eyes filled with tears ofbetrayal and then stormed out of the room.

Soun gave a tired sigh.

* * *

Throughout the ride to one of Japan's most lavish hotels, Akane sulked whereas Sayuri sat beside her, squealing excitedly as the car sped past every famous monument, dog, bank, mall and practically everything you can find in a city. Soun sat at the front of the car, eyes glued to the road as he carefully drove. Nabiki had phoned to inform them that she was already at Krystar, a five-star hotel. 

Akane crossed her legs, ignoring her father's lecture on how she should have worn a dress instead of a T-shirt and long black pants with a navy blue jacket thrown over. Akane scowled as Sayuri started talking about how Akane's future husband would look like. She was still upset over her helplessness in this situation and that her father, who'd always doted upon her, seemed to have long made up his mind. Disagreeing to his order was not even an option.

When the car was handed over to a tall, skinny valet with a Hitler-like moustache, Akane was so sick of Sayuri's chattering that she thought of running into the males' washroom to escape her incessant rambling. At the lobby, Akane noticed several black suited men walking around in perfect synchronisation, looking as if they were from the army or something.

She heard her father conversing with the receptionist; saying something about a private lounge in the west wing. Before she knew it, her father was guiding her through a wide hallway with fancy lamps hung alternately on the walls. Doors occupied both sides with the door number labelled on the wall. She made a left turn at the end before turning right and facing huge double doors with interesting inscriptions on the edges of the door. A female... maid? Housekeeper? Whatever job description fitted the pale skinned woman, she was standing outside the door, as if guarding it. When she saw Akane's father, she bent over in a polite bow and gestured to the door, allowing them to pass through. At this point, Sayuri gave a girly giggle in all the seriousness. Honestly, she didn't know how to act in such a situation. Sayuri's best friend was about to get married against her will and all she could do was giggle!

Soun knocked twice and the doors opened from the inside. Bright light illuminated from the room, blinding Akane for a few seconds. She felt her father's hands pull her inside. "Akane, this is the final moment," Sayuri whispered from behind her. "Good luck," she added, although the occasion did not call for it.

"Good afternoon, Tendo-kun. How have you been?" a deep, throaty voice greeted from her right. When her eyes cleared, Akane could see that she was in a huge room. There was a huge aquarium behind the wall carrying a few dangerous fish species. There were three couches, all three-seater, all placed perpendicularly to each other to form a square with a missing side.

"Saotome-kun!" Soun cried, running to the middle-aged man sitting on the couch on the right. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

Saotome gave a weird sort of laugh and shook hands vigorously with Soun, who sat down beside him. Akane sat awkwardly down in the centre couch which was empty.

"This is my daughter, Akane. Where's your son?" Soun asked as Sayuri jabbed Akane in the ribs.

"Look at all these... men." she pointed to five or six men standing on the edge of the room grimly. They were dressed in black suits similar to the ones on the other men Akane had seen moments earlier. "They look like they're part of the yakuza or something," she let out another giggle.

Akane nodded solemnly as a blonde in a maid's uniform walked in and served the newly arrived guests tea.

Soun and the Saotome guy lowered their voices when there was an extra presence. Akane was too upset to touch the tea whereas Sayuri instantly gulped hers down before asking for a second helping.

After a few minutes of small talk between Akane's father and his friend, muffled noises could be heard outside. The thick walls prevented Akane from hearing what was going on. Suddenly the doors caved in; somebody had kicked them. There was dust floating about in the air and Sayuri could be heard coughing.

Akane could gradually make out the figure of a boy standing in the doorway with a limp figure over his shoulder.

"Ranma!" the Saotome guy sounded furious. "Explain yourself!"

The boy gave a boyish grin and threw the unconscious man on his shoulders down onto the cold floor tiles. He stepped in slowly, his light brown T-shirt with the words 'I am Big Guy Jr.' emblazoned across it had turned greyish as the dust landed and settled on it.

The Saotome guy shouted again, his voice trembling with restrained anger. "What is your problem, boy!"

Ranma's grin stayed on his face as he pointed a revolver straight at Akane. His azure blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "That... is the problem."

* * *

Author's Note: So... is it okay so far? I hope so. Review and let me know how you feel. Flame me- I don't care. 


	2. Chapter 2

If she hadn't been so stunned, it would have simply felt like a bad joke. The loud bang of the gun discharging echoed in the air and time seemed to freeze. Even Genma Saotome, who had been yelling at his son, was hushed by the unanticipated situation. Nobody spoke, nobody moved; all eyes were turned towards the cold metal pointed straight at Akane's startled eyes from metres away. She felt her heart stop, then resume beating, but it was more of a drum-pounding, thudding-against-your-chest kind of beat.

Then time moved again. She saw dust gather in the air before her, picked up the suffocating stench of gunpowder and heard the muffled _clang_ of the shell hit the carpet.

When an individual gets injured suddenly in a bad way, like from a stab due to a knife wound, or getting crushed from the legs down due to a motor vehicle accident, it is often said that they feel no pain. The injury is so severe, and the nerves situated in that part of the body have been badly damaged and so the feeling of 'pain' isn't transmitted to the brain. Akane felt no pain.

With trembling fingers, she searched her face and ears for the telltale hole.

"Shit, I missed," the boy, Ranma, said. _Missed?_ Akane turned slowly, not daring to look behind her. There were cracks fanning out from a point in the wall, like a spider's web, and embedded in the epicentre of it all was the bullet.

_What the Hell are you playing at?!_ - was what she'd wanted to scream at him, when she heard the crash of fine china breaking as it hit the ground.

The blonde waitress in the maid's uniform cursed. Grasping her left shoulder, she whipped out a portable knife and bounded over the couch Akane was sitting on such that Akane could see a line of blood streaming down her arm from the spot she was gripping on to.

It took Akane a second to figure it out, but it was a second too long. The blonde had been serving tea to guests. When Ranma stormed in, the tea tray was beside Akane, and the blonde was behind her. Most importantly, the shoulder wound from the bullet's graze said it all. Ranma was aiming for the waitress, _not her_.

By the time the thought popped into Akane's head, the so-called waitress had the knife pressed against Genma's neck. Her hands felt the inside of his jacket. "Where is it, dammit. WHERE IS IT?" she roared in his ear.

Genma stiffened subtly. "Where is what, young woman?"

"The seal!"

She was to search futilely. Frustrated, she withdrew her hand from his pockets, and the moment she did so, he grabbed it, pushing her sleeve up to her elbows, revealing a dark mark that was too far away for Akane to catch.

She snatched her arm back. "I have a _knife_ against your fleshy throat, Genma Saotome. Do not think I will hesitate to use it." She pressed it deeper into his skin, drawing blood.

His head fell back with laughter. "I knew it. You have the tattoo. Come for the seal, have we? You're already injured, let's not make it two of us," he advised, pushing the blade away indifferently, as if somebody had offered him a gift he didn't need.

The blonde was affronted by his unfazed demeanour. She studied the room; the suits had their weapons drawn, and more armed guards were pouring in. The man who had brazenly fired a shot at her had shifted to one of the couches, sitting back on the armrest and twirling the gun around his index. He was studying her just as calmly. She felt around the base of her mouth for the pill. Her superiors had hidden it sublingually and told her to crush it when she had no way out. Only when she had no way out.

But right now, perhaps...

She grinned. "I have a great hand. With this knife," she dropped it so that the blade was between two fingers, "I can score a bullseye if my target is within a five metre radius." An air of victory showed in her confidence now. Her eyes fell onto the two lone females in the room excluding herself. "These lovely ladies are only three metres away from me."

Sayuri held fiercely onto Akane's hand and drew her legs up the couch, inadvertently trying to make herself as small as possible. Akane remained still. If the blonde spoke the truth, there was no meaning in twisting and turning. The blade would find its way to them straight and true. For the second time that day, Akane unwillingly found herself on the other end of a projectile.

"G-Genma," Soun called out hesitantly; he wanted to remind his friend that the probability of his daughter's life being blown out like a flame was one in two.

Genma showed no sign of acknowledging his friend's plea. His face stayed stoic when he said, "There's no need for threats." His hand made a swift, vague motion and, as if out of thin air, it appeared; a small emerald box no larger than his palm. "Take it and leave. What you want is contained within."

He waved his hand and the guards moved aside, forming an aisle. The blonde took the box and bounded across the coffee table and the other couch. Without turning back, she chimed as she turned a corner, "I'll be taking my leave then."

She was gone. Even when the men, who were but a few steps behind her, looked past the corner, they caught not a glimpse of her shadow.

In the aftermath, the guards cleared the room, and a small posse of them carried the unconscious bodies out. Akane heard Sayuri thanking her ancestors for watching out for her under her breath. Soun was teary eyed as he examined his daughter's body for injuries, much to Akane's annoyance. She hadn't paid much attention to Ranma after he'd shot the blonde, but now that the lady had absconded and the dust settled, Akane felt herself drawn to him. So this was the guy she was engaged to. He looked around her age, give or take a year. The gun was gone, sitting snugly in the holster. He was wearing jeans, she noted with irony. Jeans when meeting your fiancee for the first time was a huge no-no. She was glad she didn't put up with her father's dress request. No point in humouring the hosts when they were so informal themselves.

"Out with it, Pops. What's your plan?" Ranma asked.

Genma smiled wryly. "Very perceptive, boy," he praised his son.

"Duh," he rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't have given the seal up so easily if you didn't have a plan. So what is it, did you give her a fake seal or something?"

"Not quite. It was the real McCoy. Half...of it, I should say." Taking a sip from the tea (not worried about the possible presence of poison), he explained, "Only a fool would put all his eggs in one basket. The seal was created for the sole purpose of safeguarding the group the old men love so much. There's no way they would give it all to me. I have one half, while the other half is somewhere else.

"Therefore, I now bequeath on you a grave task, Ranma. You are to fulfil two parts of a mission. The first being to ensure that that half of the seal returns to us, the second being to apprise the keeper of the second half of our current situation."

"This mission is code...?"

"Alpha. It's of the utmost importance, and all other tasks are to be put aside, for now."

Ranma hopped up eagerly from his seat, but Genma stopped him, "One more thing, Ranma."

"What?"

"Take her with you."

Caught up in their rapid exchange of information in their confusing conversation, Akane looked to see who Genma was gesturing at.

It was her.


End file.
